Weapons

This is a quick reference for all ground-based Weapons currently in the Beta, as well as relevant statistics. For statistics pertaining to weapons carried by air assets, see Air Weapons. Weapons are divided into three classes: ballistic, missile, and energy.

Contents

Discussion

The raw damage values displayed in this table aren't the actual damage in-game. There are multiple reasons for this and some unknowns which should be taken into account before comparing any weapon to another, especially between categories.

The Damage column is the theoretical maximum direct-hit damage to a single component, ignoring the effectiveness of the associated damage type against the particular target. Effectiveness and actual total damage done can be affected by the following:

Multiple-launch missile weapons, especially the LRMs, tend to be somewhat inaccurate and miss the target with some missiles even when at optimal range and the target is a large, stationary Mech, therefore not inflicting 100% of its potential.

Weapons that fire multiple shots in a volley or that fire rapidly may suffer from damage being spread across multiple components (or missing entirely with some portion of the shots), making it more difficult to land a killing blow.

Some weapons may offer splash damage that can damage multiple components (or even multiple Mechs) at once. Splash damage will damage everything within its radius, with the center of the effect being more damaging, and the edge inflicting little to no damage. Components are damaged independently, so an Uller hit in the shoulder with an AC20 may suffer the full damage from the AC20 (modified by the damage type effectiveness against mechs), and suffer additional partial AC20 damage to the head, center torso, back, and/or arm, depending on how close these components are to the center of the explosion. Thus, especially in the case of weapons with large splash radiuses, the sum total damage done can much larger than the listed (maximum single-component) damage. As a result of this, hitting a vehicle on the edge between components may do more total damage than hitting the center of a single component, where it would be further away from other components, thereby reducing the extra splash damage.

Some weapons' (e.g. HGauss) damage seems to "spread" to the center torso. The relation between assumed damage and real damage is unknown; It seems to be higher, but this still needs to be confirmed.

Finally, a table cannot hope to convey all aspects of a weapon's performance; The best way to evaluate a weapon's worth is to test it in action.

Ballistic Weapons

Many ballistic weapons can be fired with effect at targets more distant than their listed range, but accuracy and/or damage will suffer. When firing AC10 or AC20 family weapons near or beyond their listed range, it may be necessary to take wind and shot drop into consideration. The LongTom Artillery is the extreme member of the ballistic weapons family and fires a long-range, relatively slow-moving, arcing shot.

Many of these weapons will overheat in continuous firing (represented in-game as a bar under the weapon name on the weapons display). If they overheat, they will become unusable for a few seconds, after which they will become usable and start to cool at their normal rate. However, if overheated, ultra ACs will jam for 10 seconds before cooling.

A note on damage dropoff: The base damage is modified by the damage typebefore subtracting the lossage for distance. Significantly, this has the effect of giving kinetic- and light kinetic-type weapons increased effective range against air assets than against ground assets, since the damage type modifier against air assets is much higher.

If Overheat and Cooldown values are listed as "???", then these values are either unknown or unpredictable for their respective weapon.

Missile Weapons

Of the missile weapons, only MRMs and and standard SRMs cannot lock onto a target. However, Tbolts and MRMs have limited seeking towards an active NARC or TAG (although there is a bug with MRMs seeking a TAGed or NARCed target, in that the missiles spread out too far). Additionally, MRMs, when dumbfired, can be guided after launch by moving the aiming reticule.

The minimum range listed here refers to the distance the missiles have to travel before they are armed and ready to explode, missiles that hit before traveling the listed distance will just bounce of their target dealing no damage. LRMs, Arrow IVs and ELRMs have another additional minimum range caused by the high arc they fly after exiting their launcher. This range is roughly 150m for LRMs and 500m for Arrow IV and ELRMs, but it can vary a little depending on torso elevation and height differences between attacker and target.

Clan SRMs are identical to their IS counterparts. Clan LRMs deal the same damage as their IS cousins, but instead of arcing, they fly straight at a target. (E)LRMs carried by aircraft are the same as standard LRMs but have better speed, maneuverability, a 25% faster lock, and fly directly towards their target (as opposed to arcing up after launch and only descending when they've reached their target -- significantly, this means the air-carried variants have no minimum range). Streak SRMs carried by aircraft are the same as standard SSRMs but have more speed and maneuverability, distance, lock rate and lock range, but will be unguided if fired without a lock.

Note that the Frag damage type is highly ineffective against vehicles.

If the damage/ton is listed as *** the damage can not be calculated, because the weapon does not deal damage in any predictable manner (eg extreme reliance on splash damage)

Energy Weapons

Energy weapons do not need ammunition. Note that the EMP and Flame damage types are not very effective against vehicles (though if you can manage to hit an air unit with a Flamer it will do much better damage than against other vehicle types).

Note that laser damage displayed in the table below is the maximum damage possible. This assumes that the laser in question has been focused on a target for the full length of its beam duration.
Also note that firing Pulse Lasers - but not X-Pulse Lasers - will occasionally fire an extra pulse. This is a known issue.